Neater, safer boi mela next year

After a new-look film festival, a redesigned boi mela.Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, the 'chief patron' of the Kolkata Book Fair, has asked for drastic changes in the design and layout to make it safer.

| TNN | Updated: Dec 22, 2011, 03:44 IST

KOLKATA: After a new-look film festival, a redesigned boi mela. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, the 'chief patron' of the Kolkata Book Fair, has asked for drastic changes in the design and layout to make it safer. She asked noted painter Jogen Chowdhury to make a new blueprint and what has emerged from the effort is a refreshingly new linear arrangement with adequate fire safety arrangements.

It seems the recent AMRI fire that took over 90 lives played on the CM's mind. While the focus of the film festival was to bring it closer to the common man, the focus now is to make the boi mela safer and more accessible for the reader.

Architects Aparajita Mukherjee and Anindita Das worked on Chowdhury's concept. On Wednesday, the Publishers and Booksellers' Guild, which organizes the fair, unveiled the map of the 36th Kolkata Book Fair.

There is a clear emphasis on arranging the stalls in straight lines this time. The entry-exit points have been placed carefully to aid evacuation in case of an emergency and the gates will be wide enough to allow fire engines. A huge underground reservoir, fitted with hydrants, has been activated to aid firemen. At least five fire engines will be stationed at the mela. Former police and fire department bosses will be roped in to oversee the fair.

Two big changes in the new plan are that the auditoria have been shifted from their traditional spots and all the stalls removed from the ring road that surrounds the fair.

The earlier fairs at Milan Mela were like a maze because the stalls were arranged in a zigzag fashion, which not only obstructed the visitors' linear view but also created confusion while trying to locate a particular stall or zone. This time, the zigzag design has been strictly done away with. The stalls will be arranged in such a way that a visitor can see the two ends of the fairground at any point in time. This will also make it easy for the authorities to evacuate the fair in the event of an emergency.

According to the new design, the main gate of the fair will remain on JBS Haldane Avenue, opposite Science City. But compared to previous years, this gate will be at least one and a half times wider, keeping evacuation in mind. Earlier, two large halls were located near this gate. "This not only obstructed the view but was not ideal from the safety aspect also. So I suggested that the empty space between the two covered halls (numbers four and five), on the ITC Sonar side of Milan Mela, be converted into the new auditorium complex. An open stage could also be created for book releases," Jogen Chowdhury said, adding that there will be no change in the location of the three other gates, only that they will be considerably larger.

The ring road will be kept completely free so that it can be a place of refuge or a gathering point in case of an emergency. "We used to be extremely pressured for space earlier because the Milan Mela grounds had not been completely paved even till last year. This time, however, the grounds are completely concretised and we have been able to keep the ring road free of stalls, as per Jogenda's suggestion," said Tridib Chatterjee, general secretary of the guild.

It is learnt that the chief minister personally inquired about the complete concretization of the fair grounds and the conversion of overhead electrical cable lines into underground ones so that chances of a short circuit are minimized. The West Bengal Trade Promotion Council, which owns the Milan Mela grounds, was asked to get the 50,000-cubic-litre underground reservoir functional so that the fire brigade could use it in the event of a fire. There are numerous hydrants attached to the reservoir that will start feeding hose pipes of firefighters.

"This time every stall will have a gadget that will cut off power the moment there is the slightest sign of fluctuation or short circuit," said Chatterjee. The chef minister has been briefed about the green zones and shallow pools at the fairground that have been created permanently by the Milan Mela authorities.

Among the new concepts that are being rung in are at least three branded cafes to be run by leading restaurant groups of the city. The food court has been properly laid out this time. "Jogen da has advised us to have small stalls at every vantage point to sell packaged drinking water and dry snacks. He has also designed the temporary sit-outs all over the fair, over and above the concrete benches," Chatterjee said.

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